Awareness is the key to noticing and appreciating the sacredness of life's expressions.
Life is your sacred temple.

April 11, 2010

Statistics

After the Polish president plane crash yesterday, I reviewed my entire perception of flying, planes, and accidents. Not for the worse, but for the better.
Seeing so many people freak out about plane crashes didn't make sense to me in my heart, although in my head it did. "Another plane crash. See? It's so unsafe to fly!" is how it typically goes.
No, I couldn't just take it like that. Maybe my own inner fears pushed me to research objective information. I went online and read articles from various sources. There were many things I found out that definitely calmed me down. If I have a 1 to 9+ million chance to be involved in a plane crash and 1 to 56 million chance to be killed in the crash, then it doesn't make sense for me to fear every single take off and landing.
Or does it?
What are statistics anyway? How are they connected to life? A sentence in an article was a reason for me to pose this question. It said a simple thing: A person might fly for the first time ever and crash; someone else can fly their entire life and be perfectly fine.
Where do statistics fit in human life then? Clearly they do, but how?

My current thought process tells me this: Statistics is a separate entity that is by itself, still connected to the world because that's what they are counting, the worldly occurrences. However, the extent of a role that statistics play in human life depends on metaphysical factors, such as person's beliefs, faith, personal karma (if you believe in it), collective karma, person's current focus (thoughts on positive or negative), and more. Therefore, statistics are actually very subjective, since they are directly connected to a particular person.

Conclusion: I decide my own role of statistics in my life. I choose to play them to my advantage.